Getting Started with Genetics
The traits of your bacterium are determined by the genes in its genome. Since your bacterium will evolve, knowing how to manipulate its evolutionary process in your favor will allow it (and your game) to survive longer. Genes For more information see: Genes Every trait in the game is represented by a gene. A gene is an collection of nucleotides (A's T's C's and G's). In real life, DNA is read in order to make proteins, and these proteins carry various functions. In the game, DNA is read and a number is calculated. This number is used for various functional ways. For example, the Size gene determines the size of the bacterium, a value of 40 will create a larger bacterium than 10. A collection of genes is known as a "genome", although a genome also contains strings of nucleotides that aren't specifically genes ("non-coding regions"). You can see the values for all genes/traits by going to Menu->Traits Mutations When you divide, a copy of your genome is made, and sometimes errors are made. Thes e errors are mutations. If the mutation occurs on a gene, the value of that gene will change, changing that trait of that bacterium. When you divide there is between 0-3 changes in your genome. You can see where mutations have occured on your genome by going to Menu->Genome Comparing Bacteria As your bacteria change, you will want to compare the differences, and luckily there is a tool in the game to do so. Go Menu->Micropedia->player. For the purposes of this game, a Strain is a collection of bacteria with the same traits. Each bacterium has a strain name with it, and bacteria with the same Strain names have the same traits. This is important because when you open the Micropedia->player on the left you'll see a list of bacteria currently alive given by their strain name. In green are the shortened name of the traits. If you place your mouse over the letter, the full name will be shown. For example, placing your mouse over the green "E" reveals that it stands for "Energy". The gray numbers are the values of the traits for the bacterium in that row. This way multiple traits can be compared at the same time. Use the left and right keys to scroll between different traits. Use the up and down keys to scroll between the bacteria. If you find you want to play as one particular bacterium, click on its name and you will switch to that bacterium. Next to the strain names is the text "Divide". Placing your mouse over this will reveal that bacterium's nucleotide (purple text) and size (yellow text) requirements. Pressing Divide will divide that bacterium. Holding down shift will change it from saying Divide to Destroy. Clicking "Destroy" will kill that bacterium. At the bottom of the screen, in cyan, are the names of the groups of traits. Here traits are grouped by function. By clicking on the names you can toggle whether or not the traits are shown. Cyan = those traits are being shown, Gray = the traits are not shown. For example, if "Metabolism" is the only one colored cyan, only metabolism genes will be shown. Plasmids For more information see: Plasmids or Horizontal Gene Transfer Are you ready to incorporate some new genes? Plasmids present a way for bacteria to share genes between one another. A couple of plasmids float around in the game and can be collected by your bacteria. When you collect a plasmid, the gene(s) on the plasmid dominate over your bacteria's chromosomal triats. But the function of plasmids extends beyond there. First, if you collect a plasmid, to see what it does go to Menu->Genome->Plasmids. This shows all the plasmids you have. A bacterium can have a maximum of 10 plasmids at a time. Within this menue you can manipulate all your plasmids. For each plasmid, it shows you the sequence, and below the sequences all traits and genes that the plasmid carries. The plasmids are ranked 1 to 10. Higher numbered plasmids will over-ride lower plasmids. For example, if plasmid #1 has a size 20 gene and plasmid #3 has a size 40 gene, the bacterium's size will be 40. Having plasmids in your bacteria increases the nucleotide requirement to divide, as now the cell needs more nucleotides to copy the plasmid. Manipulating plasmids At the bottom of the screen there are multiple buttons for manipulating the plasmids. The selected plasmid has white letters, while yellow means that it is unselected. *Destroy : Destroys the plasmid, giving you free nucleotides. The amount of nucleotides you get is equal to the size of the plasmid. *Duplicate : Makes a second plasmid exactly the same as the selected. *Integrate : Integrates the plasmid into the chromosomal DNA, replaceing the chromosome gene with the plasmid gene. *Create : (if you have the Horizontal Gene Transfer Gene)- Allows you to create a plasmid. *Eject : Ejects the selected plasmid into the environment. *Read Plasmids : If you re-arranged the plasmids in any way, press this button for it to take effect. *Move Up/Move Down : If you have more than two plasmids, you can shift the possitions of these plasmids by pressing these buttons. Category:Tutorials Category:Genetics